Bestiary |
Peckols and Patollo
The ancient Prussians also had their own god of the underworld. Not the Germanic inhabitants of the later state called Prussia, but the original Baltic nation, which was assimilated by the former. Their pantheon was dominated by a trio of gods, as they were an Indo-European people. Although such ruling structures are usually described from the highest, Perkunas and Potrimpo will come later.
Today, we will start from the bottom.
Peckols, the god of death and the underworld, and Patollo, the evil demon of the air, often merge into one figure, to which you can assign the name you like best; the depths of paganism are lost in time (although we know that for their firm belief in their Trinity, the Prussians took the life of St. Adalbert, who set out to convert them to his faith), and folklore does not usually have a direct connection to pagan antiquity. Hence, there are multiple names for one (sometimes cumulative) function.
The gods of the underworld are usually considered – and not only because of Christian tradition, but throughout the world – to be representatives of Evil. For some, such as the Greek Hades, this is unfair, as they are only the administrators of the Other World (Hades rules both Paradise and Tartarus). Similarly, the ruthless and terrifying Peckols must have originally been only an impartial and incorruptible presiding judge of the Last Judgment; otherwise, he would not have been part of the triumvirate and would not have appeared on the royal flag and shield.
And he did appear, at least some people thought so, as you can see in the picture.
Flag of the legendary Prussian king Widewut
By Caspar Hennenberger ([1]) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
12.1. 2026 (16.10.2016)
Cormoran and Cormelian
A giant named Cormoran once lived in Cornwall, at the very end of the peninsula at St. Michael's Mount, a place known as White Rock. White because he built a castle there from which he could overlook the entire region. And for some reason, he built it only from high-quality white granite. His wife Cormelian couldn't understand why he would haul stones from God knows where when there was plenty of building material available all around. True, it wasn't Cormoran's favorite color, but these green boulders were also nice. And so, while the giant slept, Cormelian picked up a piece of local rock and discreetly tucked it between the prepared white stones.
Which was a mistake.
As soon as Cormoran discovered it, there was a heated exchange of words, his wife flew into the air, and her contribution to the building followed her; they landed on the ground in the same order, the consequences of which can still be seen today, although the rock under which Cormelian ended up is no longer called Cormelian's Grave, but Chapel Rock.
Cormoran simply lived up to the reputation of European giants, who, with few exceptions, were evil, cruel, and thieving. The giant from the white castle terrorized the neighborhood, stealing cattle and carrying them away on his back or behind his belt, which reveals his true size. And as is often the case, people more or less patiently endured it, just complaining and cursing (not too loudly) and waiting for a hero to appear.
Their hero was named Jack and lived at the very end of Cornwall, not far from Land's End, and he liked the idea of facing an opponent much bigger and much stronger than himself (as Terry Pratchett occasionally mentions in his books, it is easier to hit a larger opponent). And because he was well aware that he couldn't just jump around and wave his sword at a giant, he devised a simple trap.
He simply dug a deep pit, camouflaged it well with grass, blew his horn to attract the angry Cormoran's attention, and waited. It turned out as he had expected: the giant set out to trample another nuisance, fell into the hole, so that he and Jack were looking each other straight in the eye, and Jack simply killed him. Then he filled in the pit. That was the end of Cormoran's story, while his conqueror, who earned the nickname Jack the Giant Killer, embarked on the path to fame.
12.1. 2026 (17.9.2006)
Galligantus
Jack did not earn his nickname Obrobijce (Jack the Giant-Killer) just because he cleverly got rid of a single oversized bully. In accordance with mythological and later fairy tale tradition, he specialized in killing giants throughout the entire region. The stories, which passed from folk tales into fairy tales, tell of several of his opponents. They also reveal that the collection of legends about Jack the Giant-Killer is an older form of the better-known story of Jack and the Beanstalk.
One (the last) of Jack's targets, the giant Galligantus, is a creature that is too fairy-tale-like, but I will mention him nonetheless.
He lived in the castle of a sorcerer named Hocus-Pocus, and they were a well-coordinated duo who liked to turn people into animals. This went unpunished until they turned the duke's daughter into a doe. Then Jack the Giant-Killer came along, used his invisibility cap to sneak into the castle, learned how to destroy the giant and the castle, did so, and married the rescued girl. Really very fairy-tale-like. The fact that he sent the giant's head to King Arthur and destroyed the castle by blowing a trumpet somewhat redeems the story, as it is somewhat reminiscent of God and Joshua's trick in conquering Jericho.
12.1. 2026 (17.9.2006)
Paaloloqangw
According to the Hopi, the water serpent Paaloloqangw rules the ocean (which it fills with water that it spews from its mouth). It is to this serpent that the Indians turn with their requests for rain. According to one version, divine twins sit on its back as guardians of the tribe and overseers of the correctness of religious rituals; if these are not performed in the proper form, the Twins, together with their grandmother, the Spider Woman (we have already mentioned her Navajo version), will force the snake to twist itself and thus strangle and drown the whole country. This is somewhat reminiscent of the transoceanic seismic eel Jinshin-Uwo, but Paaloloqangw is much closer to the nearby Central American culture of the Aztecs – he has taken on a number of attributes of the local Feathered Serpent Quetzalcóatl. It looks like an oversized rattlesnake with a round green head, bulging eyes, an ochre-colored crest, and a horn. It adorns itself with a shell necklace and a magnificent fan made of eagle feathers.
12.1. 2026 (24.9.2006)
Tsúnukwa
Another Kwakiutl man-eater who has been given the honor of visiting these pages. Tsúnukwa is a bit of a silly cannibal woman, one of the spirits of the Winter Dance, who can bring the dead back to life. She does this with the help of the living water she possesses—but what living water is for had to be explained to her by a certain young man who brought her own son back to life.
12.1. 2026 (24.9.2006)
Begocidi
For the Navajo Indians, Begocidi is the Tempter, the dark side of the soul, and at certain moments a kind of Navajo incubus, whose partners give birth to monsters thanks to the perverted sex they engage in with him. But as the son of the Sun, he is sometimes also the Creator and the first potter, so nothing is black and white.
12.1. 2026 (24.9.2006)
Divý muž a Divá žena (The Wild Man and the Wild Woman)
Quite common inhabitants of the forests of the Western Slavs. They entered folklore and fairy tales from ancient mythology almost unchanged, like many other forest demons.
Ladies have priority, and besides, Divé ženy or Divoženky (Wild Maidens) are more popular. So I'll start with them.
As they ran around the forest, they probably came to the conclusion that in such an environment it was not worth paying attention to clothing, because no matter what you do, it will always get torn or dirty somewhere, and so, according to legend, their clothing is sloppy. Often green. Descriptions, especially older ones, include the usual attribute of large, sagging breasts, which they (like their more distant Cantabrian relatives, the Ijanas) throw over their shoulders. They are not very beautiful, either externally or internally, and they steal or exchange newborns, abduct young men for their own pleasure, and girls as companions. When they want to kill someone, they tickle them to death.
In folklore, they sometimes have their feet facing forward and speak backwards or add "no" before every word. They also occasionally give people cakes that never run out and, in return, do no harm to those who have made kitchen utensils for them.
The Divý muž, as the male counterpart of the Divá žena, is a relative and one of the ancestors of the Hejkals, a hairy (or moss-covered), black, and dangerous person who adorns his head with a wreath of ferns. He has much in common with the eastern Lesovik, as he also likes to lead people astray and tempt them off the path, with a particular fondness for foresters. He can transform himself into a log or a pine cone or become invisible, and just as wild women seek lovers among humans, the wild man does not seek among his own kind, but tries to capture girls from the surrounding area.
There is something satyr-like about his behavior, but rather than a direct influence from Greek mythology, it seems to be a common root, as a whole range of forest creatures exhibit many similar characteristics, which is inherent to the environment.
12.1. 2026 (1.10.2006)
Divoký myslivec (Wild gamekeeper)
There are several wild gamekeepers in Bohemia, sometimes they are just synonymous with the Wild Hunter and the Lord of the Hunt, other times they are unique beings. Like the one from Janovice in Podještědí. (Although in one version of the story, he leads the Wild Hunt or hunts a deer with a golden cross between its antlers himself).
He should be catalogued among ghosts of human origin, afflicted by their own fault, because at the beginning of his post-vital career, he was a common robber. He hid the profits from his illegal activities in a hill called Buková, where he now has to build a golden castle. To make things more difficult for him, the condition of the curse is that he must not fall asleep during construction. He is allowed a few hours of sleep once a year, as is customary on Midsummer Night. At this time, we honest and ordinary mortals can also get to the treasure, but beware of the gamekeeper's horse, which gallops through the Janovice Forest on other nights of the year with flames shooting from its nostrils, for it does not sleep, but roams around and keeps watch.
12.1. 2026 (7.10.2006)
Roblón
Not all ghosts, demons, and bogeymen look like flesh and blood. Sometimes they have no shape, and their origin is unknown, other times they are born from curious materials or things, but most often they have an animalistic appearance. To make us more afraid.
Roblón, or Great Oak, is a plant, as its name suggests. It took root in Cantabria and botanically speaking, it was indeed a large, spreading oak tree, towering over all the surrounding trees. One day, a young girl took shelter under it during a storm. It wasn't the smartest idea, and I don't mean the fatal certainty that if lightning struck that spot, it would surely choose the tallest tree. That didn't happen in this case, but the wet and cold girl, who was clinging tightly to the trunk, suddenly found herself unable to breathe; the tree returned her embrace so strongly that it squeezed the life out of her and sucked her blood.
At that time, it still behaved like a well-behaved tree, with its roots firmly planted in the ground and its evil reaching only as far as it itself. This was probably not enough for him, because one day he started to move, walking around the countryside and destroying forests – breaking weaker trees and, above all, sucking up all the underground moisture he came across, including wells and springs.
12.1. 2026 (7.10.2006)
Trauco
In the Chilean forests, a dwarf named Trauco lives in hollow trees. From the shelter of his inconspicuous home, he spies on girls and single mothers. When one of those comes within range, he enters her mind and realizes the fantasies he discovers there—of course, about some handsome, free bachelor. However, he does not just lurk in trees, he also walks through the forest in his guaranteed eco-friendly suit made of natural fibers, with a branch as a cane, but in the end it amounts to the same thing. The attacked girl freezes in the captivity of her fantasies, and when she wakes up, she realizes that she was not abused by the man of her dreams, but by a hideous goblin.
Sometimes Trauco also casts curses in the form of diseases on children. In that case, it is said that taking his branch and distilling an essential oil from it over a fire will neutralize the curse. It is also said that if you look him in the eyes before he looks at you, it will surely kill him, just in case you ever meet one.
12.1. 2026 (7.10.2006)
Oilliphéist
This dragon, known in Scotland as Uilepheist, also encountered a saint, in his case a truly popular celebrity, Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. But for the purposes of the Bestiary, I will stick to the usual brief information that appears in almost all online records, including Wikipedia. Probably for the same reason I am quoting it: firstly, we are all probably copying from the same source, and secondly, it is an entertaining story. And a human one.
Oilliphéist once swallowed a drunken bagpiper named Ó Ruairc. Perhaps not out of hunger, but in self-defense, what is certain is that the bagpiper simply did not realize what had happened and continued to play. The dragon did not help himself in any way, and rather than wait for the stomach acids to cut through the horrible sounds, he preferred to regurgitate the bagpiper and flee.
Now for another usual addition, namely that the dragon's name comes from the Irish oll - big and péist - monster, legendary animal, reptile, and there we have it.
12.1. 2026 (22.10.2006)
Muryans
Similarly, pixies are said to be the souls of ancient pagans who are too good for hell and not good enough for heaven; according to some versions, the Cornish muryans are pixies afflicted by a curse.
Their name is the Cornish word for ant (which, according to local superstition, is not very lucky to kill), from which you can easily deduce that they do not even reach the usual height of a gnome. Why they began to shrink until they reached this size is unknown, but there is a simple explanation – the Muryans knew the art of metamorphosis, changing their form, and with each such change they shrank a little. Or perhaps they were born small – and because they are immortal, they leave our world by shrinking and shrinking until they are invisible. Which reminds me of Jan Weiss's wonderful novella Meteor strýce Žuliána (Uncle Julian's Meteor).
12.1. 2026 22.10.2006
The Amari
The Pygmies (as an African people, not a supernatural race) and the San (i.e., the Bushmen) had common ancestors. This is confirmed, with a little leniency, by anthropologists, but what belongs in the shopping basket of mythologists is the claim that these ancestors were called Amari and were giants with golden eyes and red skin, living, how else, at the beginning of history. Differences in skin color are, incidentally, an almost common feature of many African myths, and red is not as rare as it might seem. The Bushmen themselves are not black, as one might assume, but yellow to copper-colored. But let's return to their oversized ancestors.
They once went to war with the two-headed birds Kaa-Ula and took it from the ground up. After a hundred days of war, the earth began to sink. And as in every such legend, only two of the Amari people survived—Amarada and Odu. They settled on the back of a giant fish and began to call themselves fish people, while their descendants were frog people. They were followed by human beings, the San and Pygmies, which is somewhat similar to the Nava myth about the origin of humans through five worlds, but that is just a totemic convergence.
12.1. 2026 (29.10.2006)
Khonvoum
As the supreme Pygmy god, he rules over spirits, who in turn wield their power over humans. Khonvoum himself can be heard with his thunderous voice during storms and especially to shamans, whose dreams he most often enters in the form of an elephant. Otherwise, he takes care of more important matters, such as collecting the remains of the dying Sun every evening, which he scatters from his bag across the sky after dusk so that the Sun can be reborn at dawn.
For hunting, which the god also enjoys, he uses a bow made of a pair of snakes. As is customary in African myths, he employs a chameleon as his messenger.
12.1. 2026 (29.10.2006)
Sogbo
In his African homeland, among the Dahomey Fons, Sogbo is the god of thunder and related things, such as lightning and fire. He is the supreme god of all these things, which tells us that the Fon pantheon knows more thunder gods.
The Fon had the misfortune of becoming a lucrative commodity, connecting Muslims and Christians, with Arab slave traders supplying them in large numbers to the New World. Like many others, Sogbo traveled with them and became one of the loa of Haitian voodoo at sea. Even in the Caribbean, he is in charge of thunder and lightning. He shares this practice with the better-known Agou, always accompanied by the loa of wind, Bado.
12.1. 2026 29.10.2006
Huixtocíhuatl
The role of the Aztec patroness of salt was assigned to one of four girls who enjoyed a year as divine brides, culminating in their sacrifice during the sixth month of Tóxcatl. I have already written about one of them, Xilonen, so today I will add the remaining ones.
Huixtocíhuatl, sometimes the older sister of the rain god Tlaloc, was not only the guardian of salt and salt water, but also the goddess of fertility, probably long before the Aztec culture came into being.
Ilustration: Oliviathomas66, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
12.1. 2026 (6.11.2006)
Atlatonan
This goddess of earth and water was also represented by one of the divine brides for the festival of the sixth month, Toxcatl. For a year, she and her three companions belonged to the entourage and pleasure of a young captive who represented Tezcatlipoca. The priests taught him the courtly way of life, taught him to play the flute, and allowed him to roam Tenochtitlán with a bouquet and a golden reed pipe. And when tóxcatl arrived, the celebrations of the personified god broke out in full force, culminating in a journey up the steps of the temple, where he walked playing the flute. He broke one on each step, and at the top, an altar awaited him, where he and his companions were sacrificed.
12.1. 2026 (6.11.2006)
Xochiquetzal
Before Tezcatlipoca kidnapped her, Xochipilli's sister was Tlaloc's first wife. As a goddess, she was responsible for a great deal: love and beauty, family, fertility, games and dances, flowers and plants, and she oversaw prostitutes, craftsmen, pregnant women, and childbirth. In Europe, she would have been the perfect Moon Goddess, and indeed, this lady was also associated with the Moon among the Aztecs. She remained eternally young, accompanied by birds and butterflies, and adorned with two quetzal feathers in her hair.
In addition to her passive presence at Tezcatlipoca's festival, she also had her own, celebrated every eighth year.
12.1. 2026 (6.11.2006)
Karusakaibe
Every cultural region, tribe, or nation has at least one Creator. Karusakaibe belongs to the South American Tupí people and is no different from his counterparts. As is often the case in such situations, he accomplished his most important task long ago and retired to a well-deserved rest, having created the sky with stars, humanity and animals, fish, and edible vegetation, giving fauna and flora protective spirits and mankind the arts of hunting, agriculture, tattooing, religion, and law is no small feat.
After this accomplishment, Karusakaibe ascended to the sky and turned into the Sun, which is also not unusual. A slight change in the classic story is the fact that he did not leave peacefully, but angrily, because people forgot to make sacrifices to him. On the other hand, this does not change anything, because in the same way, only it was usually kept quiet, all the oldest gods stepped down. The problem with the Creators is that their main function relates to the distant past. They are omnipotent because no one less talented could have conceived the world. And when ordinary troubles arise, a simple question arises in many minds:
What he did back then is great. But what is he doing now?
This opens the door for successors.
These are usually the next generation, as in the case of the Slavs, where Svarog was replaced by Svarozhich, or the Greeks (although there it is somewhat more complicated). The old god cannot simply be discarded. What if...
Karusakaibe, offended, withdrew to the heavenly heights, but he continues to help people, who turn to him in prayer, so it didn't turn out so badly. One more note about his descendants—his two sons, who, as is often the case in divine circles, came into the world in rather unusual ways. The second was carved from wood by the god, while the first came from a marriage with a certain goddess, in which, however, sex did not play a role at all, as Karusakaibe impregnated his wife with a magic word.
12.1. 2026 (12.11.2006)
Heracles (Hercules)
The greatest hero of Greek mythology has appeared in the Bestiary several times, always on the other side, of course. But he belongs here too, because as soon as he finished his earthly career, he began another, Olympian one.
I will not write about the life and famous twelve tasks of Zeus' son; at best, you know them well, and at worst, it is easy to learn about them. Just remind that he was the offspring of the illegitimate couple Zeus and Queen Alcmene, that as a human he had two wives, the second of whom unintentionally took his life, as you can read in the story about the centaurs. Incidentally, it was only after his death that Zeus was able to reveal the prophecy concerning Heracles, namely that no living person could kill him, only a dead enemy. Which Nessos certainly was at that time.
Before I continue, a little apology. Most of my previous references to Heracles are somewhat denunciatory. However, they are written from the perspective of today's man and contemporary culture (and I hope that readers have understood them as such). He could not have behaved otherwise; such are the laws of myth and the times. But let's move on.
You may find it interesting that at the beginning of Heracles' story, there was not a human hero, as is usually the case, but a god. A now unknown deity of hunting and protector of the tribe, he later transformed into a mythical hero who lived according to the usual template, only to depart for the western paradise after death. Such was Heracles' original fate. He walked away to the gardens of the Hesperides (or to the silver castle behind Boreas, i.e., to the north). It was only in later times that he was elevated to the ranks of the gods; in the cultural ferment of the Mediterranean, this was not a big problem, especially since the Greeks worshipped heroes as well as gods, and the original cult of the unknown proto-Heracles was not forgotten. This transformation is also described in the myth itself – Heracles' son insisted that offerings be made to his father as a god, not just a hero. This was granted, and in Sicyon, they divided the sacrificial lamb into meat for Heracles the god and Heracles the hero.
Even during his divine career, his earthly origins were not forgotten, which is why Odysseus met Heracles' shadow in the Underworld, who pitied the involuntary traveler. However, after his death, his spirit wandered to Olympus.
Zeus originally wanted one of the twelve highest positions for his son, but he decided to abandon this plan, as it was more important to reconcile him with Hera and force her to accept his presence. He succeeded in this, and Hera adopted him through a fairly common ritual – pretending to give birth, after which Heracles came out from under her skirt. She took a real liking to him when he saved her from Pronomus, who was about to rape her during the rebellion of the giants. In the meantime, she married him to her daughter Hebe, the goddess of eternal youth and Olympian cupbearer. That is the classic version, but according to others, it was not Hebe, but the goddess Hipt (who is quite a complex character and, according to Bedřich Hrozný, one of her versions is the biblical Eve).
Officially, the former hero became a kind of Saint Peter, guarding the gates of Olympus. Like many gatekeepers, he tended to have important remarks and insightful comments about everything; for example, he rebuked Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, after her return to Olympus, when he was helping her sort her prey, for hunting hares and goats, because, unlike boars, bulls, and beasts, they supposedly do not harm humans in any way. (He obviously had no idea how rabbits would devastate Australia and goats some Mediterranean islands in the future.)
Heracles' divine scope was, of course, much greater than just guarding doors. Such a function, though certainly respectable, could not satisfy people. And so the former hero was worshipped by the Erythraean Ionians as Heracles Ipoktonos, because he was responsible for destroying the ipes pests that attacked grapevines, and in Oita as Heracles Kornopion, because he drove away an invasion of locusts from that city. He had power over bad dreams and drove away nightmares. And since nightmares have always been succubi, if a person was frightened by an erotic dream, they also turned to Heracles. Sometimes Heracles Dactylos is also mentioned and occasionally associated with the former hero, but in this case, it is a coincidence of names. I have not exhausted all the epithets and functions, as there were many of them. I will repeat myself, but to be sure, I will remind you that ancient Greece cannot be viewed as a unified culture. Therefore, I will also omit Heracles' involvement in Rome, where temples were built to him, understandably under the name Heracles.
Heracles was a Greek god. The italics suggest – yes, the usual promiscuity. He fathered a whole series of children with various mothers as a man, and as a god, he did not change; in his own temple, for example, he seduced the wife of his own priest, Timosthenes. After the usual waiting period, the future athlete Theagenes was born. I am only airing this family laundry here so that I can conclude by reminding you that Heracles' enduring legacy is the creation of the Olympic Games.
12.1. 2026 (19.11.2006)
